The personal pronouns of English can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case. Modern English is a language with very little inflection, to the point where some authors describe it as analytic, but its system of personal pronouns has preserved part of the inflectional complexity of Old English. Disputed English grammar denotes disagreement about whether given constructions constitute correct English. ... Verbs in the English language are a lexically and morphologically distinct part of speech which describes an action, an event, or a state. ... This is a paradigm of English verbs, that is, a set of conjugation tables, for the model regular verbs and for some of the most common irregular verbs. ... English has a large number of irregular verbs. ... In the English language, a modal auxiliary verb is an auxiliary verb (or helping verb) that can modify the grammatical mood (or mode) of a verb. ... In English as in many other languages, the passive voice is the form of a transitive verb whose grammatical subject serves as the patient, receiving the action of the verb. ... The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to modern German or Icelandic. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... A compound is a word composed of more than one free morphemes. ... An honorific is something that is attached to the name but is not normally used elsewhere, e. ... This article is focused mainly on usage of English relative clauses. ... Look up gender in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ... An analytic language is any language where syntax and meaning are shaped more by use of particles and word order than by inflection. ... Personal pronouns are pronouns often used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon[1], Old English: ) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ...

Basic personal pronouns of modern English

The basic personal pronouns of modern English are shown below. Possessive pronouns are used to show possession. Personal pronouns are pronouns often used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. ... A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. ... Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, one of which possesses (owns, rules over, has as a part, has as a relative, etc. ...

This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Look up I in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up we in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the Modern English personal pronoun. ... This article is about the Modern English personal pronoun. ... For other uses, see She (disambiguation). ... Look up they in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up he in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the Modern English personal pronoun. ...

Full list of pronouns

The following table shows the full list of English personal pronouns, including archaic and dialectal forms. Reflexive pronouns are used as the object of a sentence when it coincides with the subject. “Oneself” redirects here. ... An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. ... According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the other being its predicate. ...

I and me

• In modern English, me is often used as the predicative of the copula. In colloquial speech, it is also frequently used as a subject, in certain kinds of sentences. See It's I/It's me for a more detailed discussion.

For other uses, see Copula (disambiguation). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into subject complement. ...

My and mine, thy and thine

• Historically, my comes from a reduction of mine, and well after the emergence of my, mine continued to be used instead of my before words beginning with vowel sounds. Similarly with thy and thine.

Ourself

• Ourself is used when we is semantically singular as in the royal we, the editorial we, and the nurse's we, e.g. "We seem a bit displeased with ourself, don't we?"

Pluralis majestatis (majestic plural) is the plural pronoun where it is used to refer to one person alone. ...

You and Ye

• Historically, you was an object pronoun, and ye was its subject counterpart; today, you fills both roles in Standard English, though some dialects use ye for the two roles, and some use ye as an apocopated or clitic form of you.
• The only common distinction between singular and plural you is in the reflexive and emphatic forms.
• You and its variants can sometimes be used in a generic sense. See Generic you.

An apocope or apocopation is a type of metaplasm that refers to a word formed by removing the end of a longer original word. ... In linguistics, a clitic is an element that has some of the properties of an independent word and some more typical of a bound morpheme. ... In English grammar, generic you or indefinite you is the use of the pronoun you to refer to an unspecified person. ...

Thou

• Sometime between 1600 and 1800, the various second-person singular forms of thou began to pass out of common usage in most places, except in poetry, archaic-style literature, and descriptions of other languages' pronouns. Thou refers to one person who is familiar, though as in other European languages, it is also used of God. Today they have all but disappeared from Standard English, though a few dialects retain them.
• Thou still exists in parts of England and Scotland, and in some Christian religious communities. See Thou, for further information.

This article is about the art form. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... For other uses, see Thou (disambiguation). ...

Other second person pronouns

• While formal Standard English uses you for both singular and plural, many dialects use various special forms for the plural, such as y'all (short for "you all"), you guys, yinz (short for "you ones"), and yous (also spelled youse). Corresponding reflexive and possessive pronouns are often used as well.
• In Scotland, yous is often used for the second person plural (particularly in the Central Belt area). However, in some parts of the country, ye is used for the plural you. In older times and in some other places today, ye is the nominative case and you is the accusative case. Some English dialects generalised ye, while standard English generalised you. Some dialects use ye as a clipped or clitic form of you.

Water tower in Florence, Kentucky featuring the word yall. ... Yinz is a second-person plural pronoun used mainly in southwest Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, but it is also found throughout the Appalachians. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ... Standard English is a nebulous term generally used to denote a form of the English language that is thought to be normative for educated users. ... In linguistics, a clitic is an element that has some of the properties of an independent word and some more typical of a bound morpheme. ...

His and its

• Historically, his was the possessive of it as well of he; nowadays it has been completely supplanted by its.

Third person plural

• Historically the forms they, their, and them are of Scandinavian origin (from the Viking invasions and settlement in northeastern England during the Danelaw period from the 9th to the 11th centuries).^[1]
• The third person plural form 'em is believed to be a survival of the late Old English form heom, which appears as hem in Chaucer, and has apparently lost its aspiration due to being used as an unstressed form.
• The forms of they are also sometimes used with grammatically or semantically singular antecedents, though it is a matter of some dispute whether and when such usage is acceptable. When this is the case, they take a plural verb, but themselves with a singular sense is often changed to themself.
• Although traditionalists often condemn the use of the singular they when gender unknown or unimportant, this is often found in informal speech. In fact, it is a revival of an earlier usage and may one day become standard usage because it is so common; it also avoids awkward constructions like he or she. This usage is authorised and preferred by the Australian Government Manual of Style for official usage in government documents. See Singular they.

Green: Danelaw The Danelaw (from the Old English Dena lagu, Danish: Danelagen ) is an 11th century name for an area of northern and eastern England under the administrative control of the Vikings (or Danes, or Norsemen) from the late 9th century. ... In grammar, an antecedent is the noun or noun phrase to which a pronoun refers. ... Many traditional and current uses of distributive constructions in English grammar are broadly described by the term singular they, covering uses of the pronoun they (and its inflected forms) when plurality is not required by the context. ...

References

See also

• One (pronoun)
• Wiktionary table of personal pronouns
• Personal pronoun
• Gender-specific pronoun
• Gender-neutral pronoun
• Generic antecedents
• Disjunctive pronoun